The tenth edition of the Luxembourg Sustainability Forum 2021 took place on 13th October at the Tramsshapp for a few lucky people and online for all. This year, Luxembourg's key CSR and sustainable development event had an environmental focus with highlights on biodiversity, climate change, and carbon neutrality.
Throughout the day, the speakers reminded us of the sad reality we have to face. The situation is alarming, as expressed by Alexis Rosenfeld, professional diver and photojournalist at the end of the event: "The unfathomable part of biodiversity is still infinite. We are destroying species that we do not yet know!" Nicolas Titeux, Head of the Climate, Environment and Biodiversity Observatory for LIST, agreed: "We are depleting ecosystems and compromising the services they will be able to provide to our children and grandchildren. We are sawing off the branch on which we live, but there is no other branch."
We know that everything is linked and that we must stop operating in silos in our decision-making, as Marie-Monique Robin pointed out in an interview: "That's what the scientists are saying, we can no longer continue to dissociate the health of ecosystems, the health of wild and domestic animals and the health of humans. If we continue to operate like this, we are heading for serious health problems, of which this pandemic [covid19] would only be, you know, an episode with potentially much more dangerous viruses."
Solutions exist to protect our ecosystem, planet, and human life, we have known about them for a while, and there are many! Like the spontaneous testimony of Caroline Pultz, a low-tech explorer: "Low-tech is practical, accessible and sustainable know-how. With Low-tech Lab, we have been exploring and documenting low-tech solutions worldwide for the past seven years". Luxembourg's numerous initiatives to commit to and protect biodiversity are in places, such as natur&ëmwelt and the Minett UNESCO Man & Biosphere Reserve.
Some companies, such as Ramborn Cider Co, have understood this and have made protecting nature one of their core concerns, as Carlo Hein explains: "Imagine if bees could talk... In the meantime, products in supermarkets must contain information on their carbon footprint so that consumers buy with a conscience!"
Now more than ever, everyone, personally, as a citizen, or professionally, must take responsibility for going further to bring about change and act for the planet, as the "Climate Heroes" highlighted by the exhibition's founder Maxime Riché are doing. Who are the Climate Heroes? They come from all over the world. They are all different, but they are fighting to preserve and improve the world around us. They understand how climate change affects the environment around them as much as they or their organisation can influence their environment.